Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt
In 2019, President Trump was waiting for a meeting with Egypt’s president. “Where’s my favorite dictator?” he asked aloud. The Wall Street Journal suggested that, “even if lighthearted, Mr. Trump’s quip drew attention to an uncomfortable facet of the U.S.-Egypt relationship.” But in fact, Trump was conveying admiration, not discomfort, for el-Sisi’s authoritarianism. “Egypt has made tremendous progress under a great leader’s leadership,” Trump said on another occasion, although, of course, no such progress had been made. This rhetoric marked a shift from President Barack Obama, who had condemned el-Sisi on several occasions, withholding military aid for a time after he came to power in a coup in 2011.
Despite saying there would be “no more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator,’” Biden has done the same two-step dance as Obama, approving the sale of nearly $200 million in missiles to Egypt while criticizing the government’s human rights record. Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip made Egypt more important to the United States than it had been, as the country mediates between Israel and Hamas. Given this extra incentive, it is difficult to imagine Biden taking a harder line against Egypt in a second term. Still, el-Sisi would opt for Trump to become president, given their shared distaste for civil liberties and democracy. Steven Heydemann, professor of Middle East studies at Smith College, said, “What would be significant, and I think it would be something we might expect from a Trump administration, would be to signal much more vocally and much more visibly its support for Sisi personally, its support for his regime.” That could push el-Sisi to transform Egypt into something more totalitarian, ending any potential opposition or dissent from emerging.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey
Erdoğan has overseen Turkey during its transition from a democratic-leaning state to an authoritarian, Islamist-influenced one. As president, Trump acceded to Turkish expansionism, as the country sent proxy forces to fight in Syria, met with members of Hamas, and intervened in Libya as a way of asserting power in the region. Congress blocked arms sales to Turkey for two years, which frustrated the Trump administration. Like other unsavory characters trying to get on his good side, Erdoğan savvily played to Trump’s bottomless capacity for vanity, leading Trump to once brag that world leaders he left unnamed had asked him to try to talk to Erdoğan on their behalf, since Trump was the only person he respected. Trump once told an American whom Turkey had locked up dubiously for two years that, to him, “President Erdoğan was very good.”